ELKHART, Ind. - In a presidential campaign billed as "the maverick vs. the outsider," this was supposed to be a different sort of election.

So far, however, the nastiness is just as intense as in previous contests, with tire gauges, pop stars and some choice adjectives being tossed about in recent days.

There have been charges and countercharges of racism, while Web sites designed to attack and mock Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama are unveiled on an almost daily basis by their campaigns and parties.

McCain has run television and online ads comparing Obama with Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Moses, while Obama has run some that make McCain look like an angry old man.

"Our politics has gotten so nasty," Obama said this week.

The two politicians, who have thrived in part due to generally upbeat public personalities, arrived at this intense negative campaigning for varied reasons.

In a year that seems to favor Democrats, McCain went on the offensive early in hopes of defining Obama before many voters become more familiar with the relative newcomer.

Obama, meanwhile, responded quickly, something Democrats pledged to do after many believed their 2004 nominee, Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, was too slow in countering attacks against him in the Swift Boat ads.

Negative campaigning seems to be unavoidable, even for two candidates who had previously pledged to try to avoid personal attacks. "If you're not hitting, you're getting hit," as one political adage goes.

The rest of the story, including Obama's appearance Wednesday in Indiana with Sen. Evan Bayh, is in the Chicago Tribune.

Comments

The difference between McCain and Obama negative ads is that McCain's are personal. like Obama is unpatriotic.

Obama's are reactive and state and correct misrepresentations by McCain.

I can remember quite a few elections and this one has a special kind of nastiness--racially motivated and focused. Guess who's behind it?
The same party that invented the "wedge issue" back in the day. You remember, the "Southern Strategy" of the late unlamented Trickster, Nick Dixon.
More recently, when Repuglican Bernie Epton ran against Harold Washington, Chicago's first and so far only black mayor, with the unforgettable slogan "Epton---before it's too late."

Humorous ads are hardly as ugly as some like to say ha. I don't know where this writer has been but this is the mildest race I've seen yet. It's still early maybe it will heat up as it gets closer to time. This just looks bad because the media coverage back and forth is more than the norm for sure. They say candidates learned from Kerry to answer to comments etc...right away. That's what both are doing and media is covering it all, so nothing more than a lot more coverage....still mild stuff.

Desperate people will go to desperate lengths, just watch Senator McCain and his band of Lobbyists. l wondered when the, not too, Swift-boaters would get here. They never left. They have been waging a losing battle with the incompetence of the Bush/Cheney administration, trying to have us believe that night is day and day is night !! Silly gooses, don't they know, by now, that we know exactly how incompetent President Bush and the Republicans are !!? "... and all the kings horses and all the kings men, couldn't put Humpty-Dumbty back together again !!" Poor Humpty-Dumbty turned out to be just an old cracked egg !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

I keep hearing the silly assumption that McCain's humorous ads are such an assault on Obama ha ha. That is ridiculous. This is the mildest campaigning I've ever witnessed. It's still early so things will surely heat up, BUT, MEDIA going on about how awful it is really is pure BS, to make one side look like they are soooo mean ha ha.

B Hussein Obama is now telling us we could save gas money by inflating our tires properly.Nevermind that we need to drill now, and refine here and now to bring gas prices down from $4 a gallon.
Obama is just the apostle of the obvious but he is constantly playing the race card by saying they are trying to scare you about me the guy with the funny name that doesn't look like the other pictures of Presidents on the dollar bill.
Obama your problem is you were invented by Emil Jones and Dickie Durbin and you are a hard nosed Chicago politician financed in the beginning by Tony Rezko and other crooks believe me you are not an agent of change!Wakeup America Vote McCain in 08. Jerry White, Springfield, IL

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